Kansas is one of only 10 states that don’t require newborns be screened for a critical heart problem, but state health officials have been working to educate health care providers about the benefits of the testing.

Most hospitals and birthing facilities in Kansas do screen newborns for critical congenital heart disease despite not being required to do so. But about a third do not, those are mostly in rural areas that don’t have a lot of births.

A federal grant of more than 12-million dollars will fund a new, three-year partnership between the University of Kansas Hospital and medical providers in Western Kansas. As Bryan Thompson explains, the money is from an Affordable Care Act program aimed at spurring innovation in health care.